Mehmet Gök has a life-long appreciation for simple, seasonal food and the effort that goes into producing it. His mother was the driving force behind the communal feasts in the village in which he grew up in Northern Turkey; here, along with his two older brothers, now also both chefs, he spent his childhood working alongside neighbouring families, harvesting and drying fruits and vegetables and making jam for winter. “We worked together as a community,” he recalls. “One family’s produce one day, another the next, until it was all done.”

It is only natural to Gok that fresh, and local produce, He works with local farmers, planning ahead, often six months at a time, to ensure that he has access to the finest produce the land can provide, when the season allows.
“It’s different here from being a chef in London, Paris or elsewhere, you can get anything you want, all year round. To be fresh in Turkey, it has to be seasonal,” he explains. “It limits you but results in the best food.”